Cape Town Advances Portfolio-Based Renewable Wheeling With A Landmark Municipal Pilot

Cape Town has become the first South African municipality to implement a pooled renewable electricity wheeling model across a portfolio of commercial properties, signalling a structural shift in how embedded generation is traded and allocated within urban grids.

The initiative, led by energy trader Etana Energy, property investor Growthpoint Properties and the City of Cape Town, builds on a 2023 municipal wheeling pilot. The latest phase moves from single-asset wheeling to portfolio-level allocation, improving scalability, flexibility and settlement efficiency.

Pooled wheeling allows renewable electricity from one or more remote generators to be distributed across multiple properties as a collective pool rather than on a building-by-building basis. This enables supply and demand to be balanced across a portfolio, reducing complexity in allocation and billing.

In this pilot, renewable energy is supplied from the Boston hydropower facility near Clarens in the Free State, jointly owned by Serengeti Energy and Growthpoint, with Serengeti Energy operating the plant. Etana Energy acts as the exclusive trader and offtaker, managing aggregation and settlement.

Electricity is wheeled via the Eskom transmission network before entering Cape Town’s municipal grid, where it is allocated across Growthpoint’s participating assets. The initial phase supplies five buildings, including the recently upgraded 36 Hans Strijdom Avenue in the Foreshore, now fully powered by renewable electricity. The building is occupied by investment manager Ninety One.

Other sites include Constantia Village Mall, Centennial Place, Montclare Place and Newlands on Main.
Growthpoint plans to expand the model to more than 30 properties in Cape Town, spanning retail, office, industrial, logistics, healthcare and student accommodation assets. The broader rollout reflects growing demand for scalable green power solutions in commercial real estate portfolios.

Etana serves as the single point of accountability for trading and settlement, streamlining billing for both the municipality and customers while enabling competitively priced renewable electricity.
The project has been developed over 18 months in collaboration with Eskom Distribution Western Cape, whose technical coordination supported integration across transmission and distribution systems.

Additional generation assets are expected to join the Boston hydro facility in the coming months, increasing renewable supply to Etana’s Cape Town pool. Future expansion includes more Growthpoint properties and participation from precinct-scale assets such as the V&A Waterfront.
Growthpoint CEO Estienne de Klerk said pooled wheeling represents a “logical next step” in the company’s long-term decarbonisation strategy, which targets carbon neutrality by 2050 and includes over R1-billion invested in solar energy since 2011.

Etana CEO Evan Rice said the model demonstrates how portfolio-based allocation can manage supply-demand variability while simplifying settlement structures across multiple customers.
Cape Town Energy MMC Xanthea Limberg described the project as a milestone in the city’s Energy Strategy, reinforcing Cape Town’s position as a leading hub for energy innovation and private-sector collaboration.
The partners say the model could provide a blueprint for scaling renewable wheeling across other municipalities and commercial portfolios in South Africa.